McCleod's article includes the following passages:
.... The resort functions as a kind of platonic ideal for how one should spend an all-American summer, which fits perfectly, since Frances “Baby” Houseman belongs to a model all-American family: Dad is a physician, mom is a looker with a good golf swing, and sister Lisa is equal parts bratty and beautiful. Frances, the kid sister on the verge of college, with dreams of someday joining the Peace Corps, first appears to us dressed down in white keds and one of her father’s old shirts. ...You should read the entire article there.
Baby was the protagonist I had always needed but could never find: a relatable female character with pluck and self-conviction who manages to not only better the lives of those around her, but to woo all-around cool guy Johnny Castle. She was clumsy, naive, and decidedly teenage-ish, but never let any of that impede upon her genuine good nature. She was, much like me, all heart and no cool.
Like Baby, I was once a sheltered young girl. I grew up in the shadow of the church, wearing strict school uniforms and attending weekly mass until I graduated high school. ... I was a gawky, shy, impossibly awkward kid, before finally “blossoming” — rather lacklusterly — into a classic textbook version of a goody two shoes. ...
But let’s face it, being “good” is rarely “cool” and being cool is just about all that matters to teenagers ... I didn’t really learn to deeply enjoy anything until I stopped worrying about trying to be cool.
Baby resonates so deeply with me because she initially presents with the gentle naivety of a young girl, only to eventually reveal an underlying, immovable moral fiber. ... The thing that strikes me about Dirty Dancing is that the catalyst for Baby’s transformation is never entirely centered on romance. Despite her attraction to the seemingly unattainable Johnny, there’s no one moment in the film that leads us to believe Baby takes all the risks she does simply to impress him. Her actions seem as much for her as they are for him, or anybody else. The twist — if you can call it one — is that Baby’s nerve and apparent fearlessness are ultimately what pull Johnny into her orbit. ... Baby becomes Johnny’s love interest simply by being her unbridled, earnest self.
Throughout the film we witness a girl ... assuming a position of increased agency and dominance both in her own life and on the dance floor. Baby is continually uncovering as much about the world as she is about her own potential. ....
In one scene we see Baby boldly confronting her sister’s sleazy suiter, Robbie, while wearing a long sleeve striped shirt. In the scene that follows she’s cut the sleeves off that shirt, in an attempt to better fit in at the secret staff dance party. Show a little skin, stand up straighter, look aloof, and the rest is a bluff waiting to be called. ....
Contrast this to Swayze’s Johnny Castle, who feels continually put down by his superiors, his job, his status in life as the son of a unionized house painter. At first, Johnny is unable to reconcile his worldview with Baby’s seemingly naive and tireless optimism, dismissing the integrity Baby shows. He initially writes Baby off, until her commitment to their dance routine is forcibly asserted in a moment of heated frustration, as Baby retorts “I’m doing all this to save your ass, what I really want to do is drop you on it!”. ...
Besides being enormously entertaining and achingly romantic to watch, the dance scenes also serve to underscore the larger themes of communication, trust, and courage that drive the film’s plot. Dancing, not unlike the many transitions of one’s adolescence, forces an unavoidable honesty, an openness from which you cannot hide or recoil. As Johnny puts it: “It’s a feeling, a heartbeat.” ...
Dirty Dancing’s summer of new romances, self-discovery, sneaking out, and deceiving parents eventually draws to a close with a talent-show grand finale ... Sure, there’s probably a symbolic correlation between Baby finally being able to do the lift and her own personal self-actualization. Gravity-defying dance moves and catchy songs distract, however, from an earlier, tender moment that always stood out to me even more. Shortly after Johnny’s initial dismissal from the camp, a quiet farewell between Baby and Johnny illustrates the equals they’ve come to discover in one another, and echoes a sentiment we all hope to hear at the close of summer:
“I’ll never be sorry.”
“Neither will I.”
=======
The website Bright Wall / Dark Room describes itself as follows:
There are lots of sites about movies. Bright Wall/Dark Room is a different lens on film: no reviews, no hot takes, no hype, no movie news, no clickbait, no compromise, no “content,” no ads.
Bright Wall/Dark Room is an online magazine devoted to looking at what happens when we bring our whole selves to the movies. It’s about the relationship between films and individual human beings, between cinema and the business of being alive. Whether we’re watching in a theater or a living room, we’re each just a brain in a body looking at a bright wall in a dark room. BW/DR is where we go to talk about what happened there.
BW/DR is also a gathering place for writers and readers who want to look more humanly at film. ... We publish work by filmmakers and cinephiles and film studies students, but also by comedians and novelists and painters and poets.
We seek out thoughtful analysis and wholehearted engagement. ... The goal is to engage with all that movies are, in fresh and interesting ways: with warmth and affection, with thought and care, with our brains and our hearts. ...
No comments:
Post a Comment